he has made clear that the obama administration is saying that the first order of business has to be to extend tax breaks for middle-class families and raise tax rates for the top 2% of income earners. talks over how to rein in entitlement spending should be held sometime next year. >> the president is asking for $1.6 trillion of new revenue over 10 years. twice as much as he has been asking for the public. his stimulus spending exceeded the amount of new cuts that he was willing to consider. it was not a serious offer. reporter: enter a new player in the talks, stephanie cutter. you remember her? she was the deputy campaign manager for the obama-biden ticket suggested that mitt romney might have committed a felony on his tax returns. sunday night, she e-mailed them to reach a fiscal deal. republicans have balked at raising those tax rates. they are identified by marcus at countries job creators. >> for the first time in two decades, they are there will tell revenues go up as part is the plan. but they have to tell us what they're willing to do with revenues. it's definitely very har